Sides take positions for Lansdowne uproar

The IRFU meet the government this week exasperated by their refusal to commit to a national stadium. Tom English examines the issues as the saga rumbles on

When is it opening? Don’t hold your breath. Between planning and construction the best-case scenario is 2008. So says Philip Browne, the chief executive of the IRFU. That’s if it’s built at all, of course.

What do you mean “if”? Surely the government can’t cock up again? Did you not see the pictures of the Hong Kong Stadium in the papers? That could be us.

It could but then the government haven’t exactly filled us with confidence on the stadium issue up to now, have they? In a contribution that was as surprising as it was crass and tactically inept, John O’Donoghue, the minister for arts, sports and tourism, was on Today FM on Friday asking the GAA to open up Croke Park as a gesture of patriotism, thereby contradicting all his previous comments on Croker and needlessly antagonising the Gaels. “Ultimately, it ’s a matter for the GAA,” he